Jap Bantams are a miniature sized chicken with distinct features of large comb, large wings that touch the ground, arched tail feathers and very short legs. Japanese Bantams are a great show bird, good pets, require little feed and space. The Japanese Bantam is an ideal bird to run on delicate lawns and gardens, as its short legs preclude it from doing much damage to the ground.
American Bantam Association Class : Single Comb Clean Legged Class
Colors:
Black Japanese Bantams
Black Tailed Buff Japanese Bantams aka BTB Jap Bantams
Black Tailed White Japanese Bantams aka BTW Jap Bantams
Gray Japanese Bantams
Mottled Japanese Bantams
White Japanese Bantams
History: The Jap bantam has graced the gardens of the Japanese aristocracy for well over 350 years. Historical evidence suggests that the Japanese Bantam originated in Southeast Asia, where it is still raised today. Japanese Bantams enjoy a high degree of popularity in Malaysia, and are very common in Java, which is now part of Indonesia. Japanese Bantams began to appear in Japanese art around the year 1635, right about the time Japan closed its shores to outside trade. It also appears in Dutch art of the same era. This suggests that Dutch spice traders probably carried the Chabo as gifts to the Japanese from the Asian spice ports, such as Hoi An (Vietnam) and likely from Java, which part of Dutch colonial area on that time.
Names: The breed name is often abbreviated as Jap Bantams. In many places they call the Japanese bantams as Chabo Bantams. The very word "chabo" originates in Java as chabol (Cebol) , where it means "dwarf" and applies both to humans, and to the short-legged Chabo chicken. In Japan, the word would drop the "L," as no speaker of Japanese would be inclined to pronounce it.
Characteristics: They have friendly personalities, and will ride on shoulders and allow themselves to be petted and held.
There are different kinds of Japanese Bantams which include Black-Tailed-White Japanese Bantams, White Japanese Bantams, Buff Japanese Bantams, Black-Tailed-Buff Japanese Bantams, Gray Japanese Bantams, Blue Japanese Bantams, Barred Japanese Bantams, Black Breasted Red Japanese Bantams, Black Japanese Bantams, and many more. We do not currently carry the Barred Jap Bantams or the Blue Jap Bantams or the Black Breasted Red Jap Bantams.
Genetics: Japanese bantams have extremely short legs. The trait is mainly caused by a single lethal gene, and all Japanese bantams are heterozygous. When the bantams are bred, 25% of the embryos receive two mutant alleles and die before hatching. 50% of the embryos receive one mutant allele and one wild type allele and are short-legged. The remaining 25% receive two wild type alleles and have legs that are longer than what most breeders want. When the long-legged birds are bred together, they never produce offspring with short legs.
History: This breed found in the Japanese history as far as the 1700's. The Black Tailed White Japanese Bantams was recognized by the American Poultry Standard of Perfection in 1874. The Japanese bantams are true bantams, not miniatures of a large fowl.
Type: Their outstanding features are the very short, clean legs and their tail carriage: A Japanese bantam's long tail is carried high and well forward, in a manner that is normally called squirrel-tailed and is a disqualification in most breeds. They have an evenly serrated single comb, rather large on the males, and the face and ear lobes of the birds should be bright red.
References: Bantam Chickens by Fred Jeffery, Bantam Standard of Perfection by American Bantam Association, Bantams Intriguing Miniatures by John Skinner, APA Standard of Perfection by American Poultry Association
